


You're On Your Own From Here

by bashert



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, prompt, season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-26 00:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1667681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bashert/pseuds/bashert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He wasn’t proud of wielding it like a weapon, wasn’t proud that he knew what would hurt her the most, wasn’t proud that he wanted to hurt her. Wasn’t proud that he felt angry when she refused to rise to his bait, when all she did was square her shoulders, absorbed his sharp and cruel words, swallowed hard and stared back at him. Instead of replying, she sunk down into a chair across from him, was silent for a moment, and he made himself look away from her. </i>
</p><p> </p><p>A small look at a certain scene from the pilot, based on a prompt courtesy of lilacmermaid25.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're On Your Own From Here

**Author's Note:**

> This came about from a prompt by tumblr user lilacmermaid25, who gave it to me ages ago. I hope it lives up to expectations (especially considering it took me so long to get it written). I'm having a bit of writer's block, but I swear I'm trying to update my other story. In the meantime, here you go. The prompt was: "You know Will's line in the pilot: 'Yeah, they fucked up, Mac, they trusted you?' What if that wasn't about cheating, but about some huge mistake she made at work, damaging both their careers?" 
> 
> The title comes from the song by the band the mountain firework company. And I hope you enjoy!

“I think this could work,” that was what MacKenzie said.  **  
**

And it couldn’t. He couldn’t let her stay, he just couldn’t. She needed to pack up and go back to wherever it was that she run off to. What the fuck was Charlie thinking bringing her back here? Meddling. He was fucking meddling. **  
**

Will wouldn’t let himself feel sorry (or feel anything for that matter) for MacKenzie, wouldn’t let himself be convinced that this could possibly be a good thing. **  
**

He had done a pretty good job in the past few years of feigning indifference.  He had done a pretty good job at pushing everyone but the audience away. **  
**

(Until that sign in the audience at Northwestern. Until he thought he saw MacKenzie sitting there. Until “But it can be.” Which was something she _would_ say. She hadn’t really been there, though, but she was here _now_. And he had to wait at least a few months before he could fire her without it being a thing. But he would. Maybe Charlie was right, maybe he wasn’t a nice person anymore. Things were a lot easier when he just didn’t give a fuck. And so she needed to leave.)  **  
**

She was babbling about her staff that she had brought with her (and he couldn’t let himself care about them either), trying to appeal to Will’s sense of duty (well, fuck that). **  
**

“Yeah, they fucked up, Mac, they trusted you!” Will shouted and MacKenzie flinched. **  
**

It was a low blow. And the worst part was that he _knew_ it. For a brief moment the scales tipped in Mac’s favor, and Will felt something that felt a lot like guilt wash over him, but he was getting pretty good at turning feelings that he didn’t want to feel into anger and resentment (towards MacKenzie of course, always towards MacKenzie), and he let himself ignore the flash of hurt in her eyes.  **  
**

It had been Will who had held her when she had cried all those years ago even though her mistake had put both of their jobs on the line (and had actually _cost_ Will’s EP his job at the time. Len had taken the blame, fell on the sword, sacrificed himself for MacKenzie).  **  
**

To be honest, Will didn’t even remember all the details of the story. He had been on the Red Team for it so he hadn’t lived it for months like Mac had, but he remembered it had involved a U.S. senator having an affair. Not an original story by any means, a senator having an affair, but this one had involved a congressional aide with family ties to a large manufacturing company in the midwest, Will couldn’t even remember what state now. There had been whispers about bribes and impropriety and if true would have cost the senator the election and probably some jail time. **  
**

Mac had been convinced that it was true. She had two solid sources that she claimed she would trust with her life. **  
**

“They wouldn’t lie,” she repeated again and again to Will. They had just started dating (she had also been dating Brian at the time, but Will didn’t _know_ that then. And when he thought about that time now, the knowledge that she was stumbling from his bed into Brian’s stained all of those memories, good and bad), and Will had been so infatuated with her that he couldn’t think straight.  **  
**

If Mac said it happened, then it had to have happened. His EP had reservations, but had looked Mac in the eye at their last red team meeting and told her sincerely, **  
**

“I trust you, Mac. Let’s air the story.” **  
**

The story had been a big deal, big because the senator was locked in a vicious re-election battle, big because of who the girl was, and who her family was. Big because it had all the makings of a story that would bring in huge ratings. It had all the right elements. **  
**

It just wasn’t true. **  
**

The sources had both lied to MacKenzie, and she had been so convinced of the senator’s guilt that she hadn’t been able to be objective about the evidence as it came in. **  
**

There were threats of lawsuits and Will hadn’t been the big name at ACN then. It would have been very easy to dismiss him and MacKenzie, and push the shame and the story out the door with them. It would have been the end of both of their careers, and in the end it was Len who stepped up and offered his resignation in order for both Mac and Will to keep their jobs. **  
**

“I was the executive producer,” Len insisted. “It was my call. It was my decision. It’s on me.” Mac had pleaded with Len to let her resign, but he had stood firm. **  
**

“You trusted me,” she reminded him. “It wasn’t your fault. It was _mine_.” It didn’t matter. Len had already made up his mind. **  
**

Will quickly went through two new executive producers, before Charlie Skinner decided to promote Mac to EP. She resisted at first, insisting that she didn’t deserve it. **  
**

“I didn’t earn it,” she would tell Will at night when they were curled up together in bed. “I’m the reason that Len is out of a job, and instead of being punished, I get promoted? That’s not right, it’s not.” **  
**

In the end, Charlie wore her down, and she reluctantly accepted the promotion and took her place in Will’s ear. **  
**

But it was something that he knew weighed heavily on her. **  
**

He wasn’t proud of wielding it like a weapon, wasn’t proud that he knew what would hurt her the most, wasn’t proud that he _wanted_ to hurt her. Wasn’t proud that he felt angry when she refused to rise to his bait, when all she did was square her shoulders, absorbed his sharp and cruel words, swallowed hard and stared back at him. Instead of replying, she sunk down into a chair across from him, was silent for a moment, and he made himself look away from her.  **  
**

She couldn’t stay. She _couldn’t_. It was why he had marched down to his agent and exchanged three million dollars for the right to fire her (and he wouldn’t admit it to himself but part of the reason he goddamn needed her gone was that he could already tell he was ceding some of the high ground, and he couldn’t. Not when the high ground was all he had left).  **  
**

He knew all of her weaknesses, but the problem was that she also knew all of his. **  
**

She just couldn’t stay. Fuck all of the people who she brought with her, and who were banking on this job, they shouldn’t have trusted her. They shouldn’t have. That was on them, that was on her, it wasn’t on him. It wasn’t his fault or his problem. **  
**

Will allowed the guilt to recede and instead reminded himself of what she had done to him. It was easier if he could just hate her (and this might even be easier than hating her from afar. This could be better. She wasn’t dodging shells and debris after having sent herself to a warzone. He could hate her without his hate being diluted with fear and worry), and so that would be what he would do. Until he could fire her, he would just remind himself of all the things she had done wrong, all of the things that she had done to _him_. **  
**

He should have never trusted her. **  
**

She needed to leave.


End file.
